


trick or treat

by allp_wips



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-07-24 18:30:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20019073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allp_wips/pseuds/allp_wips
Summary: A Halloween evening of trick or treat leads to Alex and Astra discussing motherhood.





	trick or treat

"Astra, for the last time, you can't just attack people who come up to our doorstep for trick or treat," Alex says. "They're just costumes."

Astra, Alex's reluctant roommate-slash-prisoner, crosses her arms and looks put out. "I do not understand the purpose of this festival. What is the point of intentionally donning such horrifying attire?"

"Some of us consider it fun," Alex mutters.

She refills the candy bowl that Astra had knocked over, in her attempt the attack the adult dressed as the Grim Reaper, who'd been escorting a family of small children to their doorstep, and whom Astra had thought was attacking those same children.

"If you attack anyone else, I'm putting you in timeout."

"You can try, human." Astra looks haughty, although Alex thinks that might just be to disguise her embarrassment.

"Now, can you handle the candy bowl?" Alex asks her, handing it back.

Astra, who had specifically asked for that job, actually rolls her eyes as she takes the bowl back from Alex. "I am not a child, Director Danvers. I understand how this works."

"Debatable," Alex mumbles, but goes back to lounging on her couch, while Astra stays by the door, vigilant as if she's a lookout at war.

The next visitor is a tiny child dressed in batwings, accompanied by her fathers.

"Trick or treat?" she asks, turning her neck up at almost a 90 degrees angle to look at Astra, who's easily five times her height. 

Instantly, Astra's demeanour melts, and she kneels down to face the kid.

"And what is your name, tiny one?"

Alex thinks it must be a special Kryptonian power, to hold even the most irascible children immediately under their thrall. She's seen Kara and Clark do it, too, seemingly without even trying. This kid is no exception, as she looks at Astra's kneeling form with star-struck eyes.

"Trick or treat?" she repeats.

Astra looks equally starry-eyed, and ready to empty the entire bowl into the kid's basket, so Alex intervenes and doles the prepared portion out. They watch the happy kid leave, exchanging nods with the parents on the way out.

As they wait for the next group to come by, Astra speaks up with an unexpected question.

"Alex, have you ever considered having children?"

Alex hesitates. It's not that she doesn't trust Astra, and no one can deny that they've gotten closer in the past year, but some wounds cut too deep, and too fresh.

"Yes," she answers, ultimately deciding to be honest but not too forthcoming. "It didn't work out."

Astra turns to study her, looking intrigued. Alex internally sighs. She should have known that the woman wouldn't just take the cue, and drop the subject.

"Why not?"

Alex exhales, resigning herself to her fate, and well, it's nice to have someone to vent to. "Well, it's not as if adoption agencies rate a single mom with a very demanding job highly on their list of preferable foster parents."

She's been trying for a couple of years now, without luck, and Alex is just about close to giving up, exhausted by the runaround of it all, on top of trying to keep up with her duties leading the DEO.

Astra raises her eyebrows, and Alex prepares for another cutting comment about humans, not sure if she can take that on such a sore subject.

"I see," is all Astra says, before she goes back to watching out the door.

"How about you?" Alex asks, after a while.

She's noticed the softness and longing in Astra's eyes, when she stares at children. It's the same gentleness that's in them when she looks at Kara.

Astra shrugs, her eyes still focused outward, though they seem to look very far away.

"I knew such a thing wouldn't be feasible, given everything Krypton was undergoing at that time, and Non was uninterested regardless," she says. "It was objectively the correct choice, to not have a child."

Her tone betrays the regret of the choice, objective or not.

"I see," Alex echoes.

She looks down at her hands, then peeks back up at Astra, coloring when she realizes that her gaze is not trained out the door anymore, but at Alex herself.

"I can't think of anyone better fitted to be a mother than you," Astra says.

Alex blushes even redder. "Shut up."

Astra shrugs. "That wasn't idle flattery. I've seen the way you deal with the children at the sanctuary."

Alex looks back down at her hands, not sure how to take that. She hadn't really mean to help out so much at the alien refugee sanctuary that Astra and Kara run, just a few miles outside of National City. There are a lot of children there, refugees of one intergalactic war or another, and while some of them have been reunited with their parents throug the Kryptonians' effort, many remain orphaned and stranded on Earth. In the beginning, Alex had only meant to visit there a couple of times. But, before she knew it, she had been making the drive over there just about every weekend, helping out with whatever she can.

Now, it's just another regular part of her life.

"They're good kids," Alex says, her voice rough.

She's grown fond of them, all of them, both the humanoid ones and the ones who look undeniably alien. Alex has even considered adopting one or more of them, but that's impossible. The sanctuary is on thin ice as it is, legality-wise. It's only allowed to operate without hassling from the authorities because of the interference of President Marsdin herself. Officially allowing adoption would lead to a lot of legal complications that Alex knows the organization is simply too new and ill-equipped to handle.

"You _will_ be a mother one day," Astra says. Her voice is oddly certain, though she's resumed staring back out of the door.

Alex smiles. It's the weird thing about Astra's strength of belief: when she says something like that, Alex really wants to believe her. 

"Thanks. And hey, Astra?"

"Yes?"

"I've seen the way you look at Kara, and the kids at the sanctuary," Alex says. "I hope you get to be a mother too, one day."

Astra looks touched, but also sad. "It's kind of you to say that, Director Danvers."

\---

**_2 years later_ **

"ASTRA!"

Astra steps back, as a medical instrument is flung through the opening of the door behind which the nurses are tending to Alex. She catches the object on its journey past her head, and lays it neatly on the desk she's leaning against, next to the packet of ice, set of keys, and single shoe that Alex had also thrown in her direction before that.

"Astra, get in here, so I can kill you for making me go through this!"

"Shall I go in?" Astra requests, in a low voice, to the only nurse who is left beside her in the waiting room.

"She already told you to get out, honey." The nurse looks unruffled, as if she's done this a hundred times before, and faced down mothers in labor far more deranged than the one that Alex has turned out to be. "That means you get out, and you stay out."

Astra nods, and stays put, despite Alex's continued shouts and screams.

"I hate you, Ast-ARRGGGH!"

"How could you make me be the one to go through this!"

"She asked to be the one to carry the baby," Astra grumbles, but subsides when the nurse glares at her.

"Sssh. Do you want her to start throwing things again?"

Astra shakes her head meekly, and goes back to staring through the partition, using her X-Ray vision to ensure that Alex is alright.

This is not the result that Astra had forseen, when she had repaired the Kryptonian Codex that had been sent with Kal in his pod. She had fixed it upon Kal's request, so that he and his mate Lois could have children. Astra had also been thinking of Kara, when she had agreed to his request. Her niece, and whoever she chose, would have the ability to birth biological children if they wished, for the Codex had been engineered with the ability to host couples of any gender.

And then, her and Alex had gotten together, after months of circling around each other, and the question of having a child had eventually reared up its head again. Astra had been predisposed to adoption, and she had thought Alex was, too. But, with the introduction of the Codex into the equation, more discussions had revealed other yearnings. Alex wanted the experience of getting to carry a baby, with someone she loved, and the Codex gave her the chance to do that, with Astra. Astra couldn't, and had no wish to, refuse such a wish. She did not regret the decision one bit, especially after she had witnessed the teary-eyed elation on Alex's face, when they had first learned that the pregnancy was viable.

That doesn't mean that she's blind to the risk that humans face, going into pregnancy, unlike the safety of the incubating machines of Krypton. 

Astra knows that everything is going fine so far, by human standards, but she can't prevent the anxious spiking of her heartrate, everytime Alex screams. She's known only one other person who had undergone such a birthing process - Lara Lor Van - and she knows it had been a harrowing process. Astra can't help but compare the two events.

Eight hours later, though, anxiety is the farthest thing from Astra's mind, as she stands next to Alex's bedside, cradling a newborn baby in her hands while Alex's eyes flutter with weariness. Astra can hear the nurses say something, but she's too entranced by the squalling baby boy, with his green eyes currently screwed shut, to process it.

"Hmm?" she asks, absentmindedly.

"What are y'all thinking of calling him?" one of the gathered nurses repeats.

Astra stalls, looking down at Alex.

"Arthur," Alex says. "His name is Arthur In-Ze Danvers. We'll call him Art."

Astra feels herself tearing up, as she gently teases a wet tuft of hair away from the baby's forehead, while he continues screaming. "Arthur. I love him. I love you."

She sees Alex reach for the baby. Astra deposits him back into her arms, before straightening the chair that Alex had once thrown, so that she can sit by her wife's bedside. She contendedly watches Alex cuddle the baby, keeping an eye on mother and son while the nurses file out to deal with other wards.

Eventually, Alex grows tired again, and returns the baby to Astra, before sinking back into the bed.

"You were right, Astra," she murmurs, before her eyes close. "Then again, I guess I was, too."

Astra looks at her wife, whose eyes are peacefully closed now.

"About what?"

A gentle smile plays across Alex's lips. "I guess we both did get to be mothers, in the end."

\---


End file.
